Williamsburg

North Brooklyn’s deadliest road struck again last week, when a man was struck and killed as he tried to cross McGuinness Boulevard — an accident that has left residents outraged that the city has not done more to protect pedstrians. Comment.

Williamsburg

After many years of deliberating, the city selected the Queens-based developer TNS Development Group to build the below-market-rate units in the long-closed medical center and on an adjacent city-owned lot on Maspeth Avenue near Kingsland Avenue. Comment.

Brooklyn Courier

Flatbush cotton candy king Fretzell Drewer, 17, spun his sweet magic while “Pot Belly Gumbo” kept the crowd clapping and toe-tapping with an ear-ful of harmonies at the Fifth Avenue Family Festival in Park Slope. Comments (1).

Borough-wide

Hipsters, old-timers, and barflies will raise their glasses at Freddy’s Bar for the last time on Friday — making a final toast to a Prohibition-era watering hole, but one man won’t be there: the man whose name is on the awning. Comment.

Brooklyn Courier

Canarsie

A Bay Ridge father of two was arrested on April 22 for allegedly strangling his live-in girlfriend to death with an extension cord and then dumping her body outside a Queens cemetery in a poor attempt to cover his tracks. Comment.

Borough-wide

Borough-wide

An airbrushed mini-van depicting a pride of menacing-looking purple pumas proved that cats don’t always land on their feet on April 22. Police said that the mini-van ended up teetering on its side following a collision with a sports utility vehicle at the corner of Utica Avenue and Avenue I in Flatlands. No serious injuries were reported at the 4 pm accident, officials said. Comment.

Crime

Borough-wide

Williamsburg’s rookie phenom councilman is swinging for the fences to get the developers of the Domino Sugar factory to scale back their project while maintaining the same number of affordable units — but the developers say he’s hit a foul ball. Comment.

Borough-wide

Park Slopers can once again get their caffeine fix at Gorilla Coffee, which reopened on Monday after a stunning walkout by the entire staff two weeks ago forced the Fifth Avenue java joint to suddenly shut down. Comment.

Borough-wide

Last week, the last holdout in the Atlantic Yards footprint, Daniel Goldstein, accepted $3 million to move out of his condemned apartment. The settlement is more than other residents received, fueling some talk that Goldstein’s fight against developer Bruce Ratner was about the money. This week, Goldstein responded, while his chief critic, Bertha Lewis of ACORN, shared her two cents. Comment.

Borough-wide

For nearly seven years, at considerable personal risk, I used my home to fight the abuse of eminent domain and Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Without my home, the misguided project — opposed by a fierce community movement I came to lead — could not happen. With no democratic political process available to the community, the not-so-simple act of keeping my home was the best way I could affect what was clearly a fixed deal. Comment.

Borough-wide

Forest City Ratner officials abandoned their diplomatic talk on Tuesday to explicitly portray Daniel Goldstein, who ended his long holdout in the Atlantic Yards footprint for $3 million last week, as an opportunist looking to make as much money as possible. Comment.

Borough-wide

Residents are hailing reports that Walmart is looking for its first Brooklyn location — even as critics of the big-box store are preparing to fight back the retail Golaith famous for its “low, low prices” and, some say, low, low wages. Comment.

Borough-wide

He’s been Brooklyn’s park czar for almost 30 years, but outgoing Commissioner Julius Spiegel says he can’t identify trees, doesn’t know plants and has never really been all that interested in parks. Comment.

Borough-wide

A Community Board 13 panel finally voted to back Borough President Markowitz’s controversial bid for a glitzy $64-million amphitheater inside Asser Levy Seaside Park — ending a year of silence on the issue that brought out accusations that the members are just shills for the Beep. Comment.

High School Sports

There was extra “oomph,” as Richie Carbone called it, in the Poly Prep dugout on April 22. Berkeley Carroll, the same club that shocked the Blue Devils in last year’s NYSAISAA title game, was in Bay Ridge. Comment.

High School Sports

No borough in New York City had a greater depth of girls basketball talent – in players and teams – than Brooklyn. The story of the season was the emergence of Bishop Ford not only as a city powerhouse but a team that made some waves on the national level, beating both Christ the King and St. Michael Academy in the same year. Comment.

High School Sports

The borough known for hoops enjoyed another exceptional season on the hardwood. Boys & Girls won its first PSAL title since 1979, winning the AA crown, and Bedford Academy claimed the B championship, its first city title of any kind. Comment.

24/7

BoroBeat

“I can tell you that there is nothing like seeing the face of a child light up as he or she receives a new toy for the holidays,” said toy drive co-founder Brian Gotlieb as he presented plaques to six “surrogate moms” for their selfless community work during a tribute brunch in Coney Island. Comment.

BoroBeat

Too many cooks in the kitchen only added to the fun fry-up when the Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care in Manhattan Beach held a potato pancake contest, glazing the winners with something more than just dough — golden spatulas and major bragging rights. Comment.

BoroBeat

BoroBeat

A beloved Manhattan Beach reading teacher was immortalized before her family, colleagues and the children she taught when PS 195 dedicated its refurbished library to the memory of Sandra Rosuck. Comment.

24/7

In the last decade, a new sub-genre of horror flicks has developed called “torture porn,” which seeks to communicate in an extremely over-the-top manner the dangers of vengeance at any cost. Movies like “The Devil’s Rejects” and “Hostel” show how torture ends up turning the good guys bad, leaving the protagonists — and the audience — adrift in a post 9-11 world in which the moral high ground has been abandoned. Comment.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Borough-wide

The venerable Park Slope Food Coop has fired a shot against the fancy-schmancy Barneys Co-op, saying that the department store slated to open later this year on Atlantic Avenue has illegally coopted the word “co-op” — and one lawyer says the supermarket may actually have a case! Comment.

Williamsburg

Greenpoint’s veterans remain in legal limbo after the NYPD rejected their application for their annual Memorial Day parade because the route of the eight-block march was considered one-half-block too long. Comment.

Borough-wide

Less than two weeks after winning a big political and policy victory on the Williamsburg waterfront, rookie Councilman Steve Levin is now after a bigger fight against a stronger opponent — he wants changes in a $1.2-billion Domino Sugar redevelopment that is backed by a wily veteran named Mike Bloomberg. Comment.

Brooklyn Heights

As part of a bold new Brooklyn campus, New York University is talking about building a 41-story tower on Jay Street near Myrtle Avenue — a striking proposal that would radically change the face of Downtown. Comment.

Borough-wide

A police raid of an anarchist collective in Bushwick last Tuesday — which cops claim was a mission simply to arrest two members of the commune who skipped court appearances on minor offenses — may actually have been a intelligence mission at the Thames Street compound. Comment.

High School Sports

Xaverian has a catcher going to the University of Arizona, a deep and talented pitching staff and a Division I centerfielder. That alone should make the Clippers a contender for the CHSAA Class A intersectional title. Comment.

Williamsburg

A controversial three-tower residential complex along the South Williamsburg waterfront received its final approval from the City Council last week — a final rubber stamp that came only after the developer promised more below-market-rate units and larger apartments for Hasidic families. Comment.

Bay News

Features

One of the main concerns that I have about having the 9/11 trials held here, other than the fact that it makes us a bigger target then we already are, is that the terrorists, instead of getting the hangman’s noose, will get the same slap on the wrist from another limousine liberal judge that Ahmad Wais Afzali got — four days in jail (already served) and leave the country. Comment.

Bay News

Most of America was pulling for Robert Morris in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament when the 15th-seeded Colonials nearly knocked off No. 2 Villanova. When Robert Morris’ upset bid came up short, nobody was more disappointed than Lamount Samuell, Jr. Comment.

Borough-wide

Borough-wide

A corrupt and anti-gay former City Councilman who managed to win a Civil Court seat two years after embarrassed Democratic party officials backed him so that he would stop running for public office, has actually been promoted. Comment.

High School Sports

The phone calls from college coaches have come pouring in for Medgar Evers senior Jasmin Robinson. There was Hofstra, St. Peter’s and Rhode Island just this week. The lightning quick point guard has become a hot commodity. Comment.

High School Sports

Victoria Capozucca didn’t like what she was hearing during a meeting in the circle. Poly Prep coach Mildred Piscopo huddled with her team to talk about how to deal with Fieldston star Kate Miller with runners on first and third and no outs and the Blue Devils up five runs in the bottom of the sixth. Comment.

Borough-wide

The Italian ride manufacturers behind Coney Island’s newest amusement park say they will try out their latest scream machines right here in Brooklyn, making local thrill seekers either test pilots or guinea pigs. Comment.

Borough-wide

The venerable Park Slope Food Coop has fired a shot against the fancy-schmancy Barneys Co-op, saying that the department store slated to open later this year on Atlantic Avenue has illegally coopted the word “co-op” — and one lawyer says the supermarket may actually have a case! Comment.

Borough-wide

Inside a modest brick row-house in Homecrest lies North America’s only museum dedicated to one of the greatest tenors who ever lived, and the only inkling that it exists is an engraved sign outside the door welcomes visitors to the “Enrico Caruso Museum.” Comment.